Digital Dialogues
A Talk with
Todd Allen
By Ellen Fleischer
Todd Allen is no stranger to digital media.
He currently works as a digital and interactive consultant and has written on business
and technology for several major publications.
He’s taught eBusiness at the college level and
wrote a webcomic for a time. He has written
about the comics business for Publishers
Weekly, CBR, and The Beat, and has served
as contributing editor for the latter. He is the
author of The Economics of Digital Comics
(later re-titled The Economics of Web Comics),
and has just successfully funded the publication of its third edition via Kickstarter.
Todd was happy to talk to us this month about
his work with digital publishing, his webcomic,
and his forthcoming book.
SP!: CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT
YOUR BACKGROUND? ARE THERE ANY
EXPERIENCES THAT YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE
THAT YOU CONSIDER TO BE FORMATIVE?
TA: BS in Communications with a concentration in EE/CS from Northwestern. MA in
Internet Business & Media Convergence from
NYU.
Mostly, I’m a digital/interactive consultant. A
mix of interactive agencies and non-profits.
The client list includes the American Medical
Association, National PTA, TransUnion, Navistar
and McDonald’s. Five years teaching eBusiness courses at Columbia College Chicago
as an adjunct professor. Two or three courses
per semester for the bulk of that. I spent 2013
contracted with Aerbook, a digital publishing
startup, ending with a contract as Director of
Product.
I’ve moonlighted as a journalist quite a bit over
the years. Business and technology coverage
for the Chicago Tribune, The Next Web, and
Startup Grind. I was a humor columnist and
NBA/WNBA columnist for New York Resident,
a Manhattan weekly. I’ve covered the comics
business and its intersection with technology
for Publisher’s Weekly, The Beat, and Comic
Book Resources. During my time as a contributing editor to the Beat, it’s been nominated
for an Eisner Award and named to TIME’s top
25 websites of 2012 list.
SP!: YOU’VE BEEN WRITING ABOUT DIGITAL
COMICS FOR WELL OVER A DECADE. HOW
DID YOU FIRST GET INTERESTED IN COMICS
IN GENERAL AND DIGITAL COMICS IN
PARTICULAR?
is that so creators know what their options are
TA: Comics have been around me as long as when the market cycles turn against the mainI can remember. I can remember when I was stream publishers. There’s no question that
a small child, my mother having me read a there are cycles to this.
Dick and Jane book to her. Then I went back
to a Batman comic, which was more interest- SP!: IN ADDITION TO WRITING ABOUT DIGITAL
ing. I became interested in the business side COMICS, YOU’VE PUBLISHED ONE OF YOUR
and the digital side because, when I got out OWN. WHAT CAN YOU SHARE WITH US
of undergrad, comics were barreling into the ABOUT DIVISION & RUSH?
90s downturn and the first dotcom boom was
in full swing. Comics were, by and large, ignor- TA: The Chicago Tribune became alarmed
ing the emerging digital channel and poison- when the Huffington Post started up a
ing their distribution network. Part of why I’ve Chicago-based sub-site. The Tribune Media
always been interested in documenting this Group (which I gather has shifted into a slightly
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